Heading to Rayenda Today

Got some Bangladesh pics up on Flickr if you’re interested…

So – were off today on the rocket, heading to the Sadarghat docks for 6:00pm, which should be about an hour and a half cab ride across Dhaka, which will probably cost us upwards of 300 Taka – or about $6 Canadian. We have a second class cabin booked on board – which are apparently quite nice, with two beds – a necessity as we won’t reach our transfer point (Massua) until 2:30 tomorrow afternoon. Were anticipating a really neat river journey – sort of a cross between Huck Finn and Indiana Jones. There should be lots of fascinating scenery, which we’ll do our best to document.

Once we get to Massua, we transfer to another boat or bus for the short (1 hr) hop to Rayenda, then were there! I called Marc at the camp the other day, and it all sounds great. There’s a laptop with Internet access that they’re sharing, which saves us buying $200 worth of hardware to send emails. We also did a little shopping trip to a hardware store on the camp’s behalf picking up a bunch of tape measures and other assorted construction bits.

Final thing were going to buy today is movies: knock-off dvd’s are 90 tk (that’s about $1.50) – and I figure some movie nights might be welcome at the camp!

Its cold here at night in Dhaka – were sleeping under a big comforter – and were anticipating it to be cooler yet in Rayenda – not quite what one expects here, but actually a nice change from the heat and humidity of Singapore and Malaysia (for me anyway, Connie might disagree). Were also sleeping under a mosquito net every night, and have started our anti-malarial drugs… there’s definitely mosquitos about and though not all foreigners take the drugs, were erring on the side of caution.

Getting our Rocket tickets yesterday was quite a funny experience too. Finding the office was an adventure, though we’d done a scouting mission the day before (the office turned out to be closed), so we knew where it was. Once in the ticket reservation desk, we had to convince the ticket guy to sell us a second class ticket (first class was all booked) – which eventually he did, even though were supposed to go to a different office in a different part of town to do so. Big thanks to the Lonely Planet for mentioning that with a little convincing, the first class office is perfectly capable of selling second class tickets. Once the ticketing process began, what followed was 15 minutes of ticket guy juggling three phones – one red landline, one green landline, and a cell – no idea if it was all on our behalf or not – but hey, we got the tickets!

Made it to Bangladesh!

Made it, alive and well and well looked after. Net connection very shaky so posting quick while its good. Heading out of Dhaka in a day or two, arriving in Rayenda a day or two after that. Dhaka is the craziest place I have ever been – whatever you might imagine it to be like is insufficient… 12 million people most living on $2/day creates a remarkable urban environment. More to come as net connection permits, but all is good in the meantime!

Delayed

Darn – we’ve been delayed 6 hours and 45 minutes – departing at the thrilling hour of 2:45 AM. Yeesh.

Heading to Bangladesh

(This is excerpted from an email I sent to Dave, so if it sounds familiar Dave, that’s why!)

Were on our way shortly to Bangladesh – leaving within hours! A bit of nerves building, but I think were pretty well set up. Were flying “Biman” – the Bangladesh national carrier – from Singapore direct. Its actually a four hour flight – the distances around Asia can be deceiving (or the planes are slow!). We’ll arrive likely around 1:00AM, when we’ll (hopefully) get picked up by our B&B – the Green House. Were splurging – will be around 40-50 USD per night, but the airport pickup makes it worth it. Additionally, it comes recommended by another volunteer who just shipped out to Rayenda (the town where our volunteer group is based) – apparently the b&b staff were instrumental in getting transporation, mobile internet access, and everything else – so we don’t mind paying a bit for the help.

So – Saturday, we’ll figure out how quickly we can get on the road for Rayenda. We’ll do the first leg of the journey (24 hours!) on a Rocket Steamer – which is essentially like the Paddlewheel queen with private sleeper cabins. When we get into our transfer point the next day, its either a bus or a tramp steamer to get to our final destination. Then – a 20 minute walk across town, and were home for the next two months! That walk should be interesting – apparently foreigners attract large crowds wherever they go once you’re outside of Dhaka. However disconcerting the crowds may be at first, they’re just friendly and curious, and apparently one becomes used to them very quickly.

Below is a map of Bangladesh – see Barisal? Apparently Rayenda (which is too small at 50,000 people to show up on the map) is somewhere around there:

View Larger Map

The weather in Rayenda is surprisingly cool – it seems to be topping out around 25 in the day, going down to 10 at night. Believe it or not, I’ve actually packed long johns to sleep in – not ordinarily something one packs for south east Asia!

Anyway – if you’d like to know more about what we’ll be up to in Bangladesh, you can read all about it on the Hands On Disaster Response website, and check out their Flickr stream.

Alrighty – there’s packing to finish, so I’m off – next writing from Bangladesh!

Totally Tubular: Cultural Differences

Sometimes, its the funny little things that remind you that you are in fact in a foreign land – even one as westernized as Singapore. For instance: last night we made spaghetti, enjoying dinner with Shareen and Natalie on Fergus’s balcony, overlooking the city. But… the spaghetti was tubular. Each piece was in fact hollow in the center – effectively, we were eating foot long, extremely thin macaroni alfredo. Wild!

Another one is: burning wads of cash money. In Manitoba, we have stubble burning that clouds the city in acrid smoke; here in Singapore, they have the Chinese New Years ritual of burning (fake) money (and other items) for ancestors to spend in the afterlife. Looking out from the balcony last night, we were surprised to see what looked like a violent riot outside of the neighboring apartment blocks, complete with several huge bonfires and crowds of people. Turns out of course that it was just the citizens of those blocks using the provided oil barrels to cosmically wire their foreparents some spending money. Anyway, the smoke was like stubble season in Winnipeg.

nyway! Good times in Singapore!

-R

Frogs, horns, and squats

Rod, Nat and I arrived late yesterday from a long weekend in Melaka, Malaysia (3 hr drive North-west of Singapore). Good times! As the New Years Festivities continue (the festival continues until Feb 16th/17th), we got to experience the colors and crowds and charm of Chinatown in Melaka. It seems Singapurans and Malaysians alike all travel to Melaka for the holidays as it was PACKED (which only added to the party atmosphere). Thanks to Nat and Rod, we managed to get a bus ticket there and back (alot of other travelers were stuck without tickets) and got to stay at an incredible hostel.

From what we can tell, Melaka seems to be an important historical starting point for the Malay people and nation. We’ll give you a coles notes version of its history based on what we learned from our trip to the Historical, Ethnographic and Literature Museum (we skipped the literature part of the museum : The first Malay sultanate ruled in the 13th and 14th centuries – there was a long string of sultans (this part was a little confusing as they all similar sounding names and you couldn’t distinguish one from another) and the Melacca empire grew, as did its alignment with China and its importance as a trading port. It was conquered by the Portuguese in 15th century and then later by the Dutch and then the British. The Japanese invaded during WWII and murdered many of the Chinese and Malay people. After the war it was once again under British rule until it gained its independence in the 60’s. The Museum was housed in was is believed to be the oldest Dutch building in the East. With the changeover of so many different ruling nations, alot of the old buildings were destroyed, but there is still part of the old portuguese church left (built in 1511)  at the top of the highest hill within the fort walls. St. Francis Xavier was burried there for a short while.

The highlight of Melaka for us was probably the people – I mentioned earlier the hostel-Ringo’s Foyer. R, the overly generous and hospitable man who runs the hostel made our weekend. Every evening R would organize a group dining experience for all the hostel patrons so we got to try some incredible local and chinese food and met some really cool peeps from all over! R even went out of his way to make sure that Rod’s fish alergy was accommodated. To top it off the hostel had a great roof-top terrace that we took advantage of each night after we’d had enough of the crowds in Chinatown’s night market.

On Sunday night about 15 of us gathered around at the Chinese restarant right next to Ringo’s to watch as N (Connie’s sis) and N’s friend, S, select a frog for dinner. Yes, there was a huge tank of massive bullfrogs – frogs are apparently a Chinese delicacy and a symbol of wealth. All 15 of us watched in horrified fascination as the young girl working at the restaurant killed, skinned and de-intestined the poor little Prince Charles (that’s what N and S named it). I’ll spare you any more details, but the end product tasted very much like chicken (I tried a little piece), and N and S are still alive.

There were more dramatics on the bus ride home, as our bus driver must have been in a rush for a hot date or something – he drove like a madman the whole way back and honked an everyone and everything that dared to get in his way. I kept fallin asleep and then jolting back awake as the horn blared again and again and again (I think it was louder inside the bus than out!!). Not surprisingly Rod, N and I got through Singapore customs to find that the bus had left without us and at least 3 other passengers. Thankfully we were already back in Singapore and were able to catch a bus and then the MRT back home to F’s.

This last little bit is concerning toilet matters and so readers disgression is advised:) Squat toilets is the particular topic: Because Singapur is very modern and very western we haven’t noticed squat toilets as much as most bathrooms have the option of toilet and squat toilet. Crossing into Malaysia, the dilema of the squat toilet became more apparent. How does one use it?? And what is that hose for?? You walk in to a bathroom stall and rather than a toilet, there is a whole in the floor, a hose coming from the wall, and the floor is covered in water ( hopefully that wet stuff is water). N and I have gotten in the habit of bringing kleenex with us everywhere, because usually the bathrooms are not equiped with paper. I think Rod was the most perplexed of the three of us and so we practiced “squatting” one evening in order to prepare for the inevitable event of requiring to squat. What we can’t figure out is how people go into a stall with no paper and are supposed to use the hose to “clean” themselves, and don’t come out with everything dripping wet. I call these folks “squat masters” – what skill!!

Life is Easy in Singapore

Today – Chinese New Year’s Eve, and also the hottest day we have experienced so far. We have discovered that the haze that generally cloaks Singapore isn’t only pollution (thank goodness). Today there was blue skies, sunshine, and hot humid temperatures. The need for sun screen and a hat have become evident! A pool also helps!

We have been in Singapore (the first stop on our SEA journey) since Saturday and we decided the hot weather and holiday atmosphere were good enough reasons to chill out today (it’s been go, go since we arrived). A very kind and generous friend has let us hang our hats at his place for a bit, so we are sitting in his gorgeous 10th floor apt with a breeze blowing in from the balcony after a dip in the Olympic-sized pool. Yep – doesn’t get much better than this.

The concensus is, we love Singapore! The people are very polite and friendly, the transit system rocks (you buy a swipe card, put money on it and away you go – just swipe your card against a transponder as you get on a but or enter the MRT station.) It has made getting around too simple. A couple of interesting notes – the subway is ALWAYS packed no matter what time of day or night, and no one gets on or off at Newton station! We also got a good laugh out of a video that is shown at all the stations telling passengers to be vigilant of suspicious looking characters (a lady is shown sizing up a guy carrying a bag – as if carrying a bag makes you suspicious!).

The night we got in, our friends F and S took us to Little India for supper because we figured it might be a good bet for finding some food that could accommodate Rod and his fish allergy. And it was, although Rod did eat with some degree of trepidation. Since then we’ve mainly stuck to grocery stores and pau (chinese dumplings filled with pork, chicken, veggies etc.). Connie’s tried a few more things and we actually found a vegetarian restaurant last night. On the way back from dinner on Sat night, S and F were trying to explain the mrt and bus system and point out the pertinent stops etc. Rod and I were so exhausted from the 18+ hours of flying, and we did everything we could to stay awake for the explanations. But it finally got the better of us and I remember at one point hearing F say “look, both their eyes are closed”.

Since then we’ve packed in a fair bit, starting with Church on Sunday morning – it was weird to go to a service half way around the world and it be almost exactly like going back at home except that it was more high tech, and they had an entire section for the hearing impaired, which is where we sat. We’ve hooked up with Connie’s lil’ sister N – it is super fun to see a family member / friend out of context like this. We delivered to her 50 lbs of chocolate that loving family members asked us to cart over for her because apparently chocolate is expensive here?? Rod and I are baffled by this as you can basically get anything that you can get at home and at roughly the same cost. In any event Rod and I benefited from this as of course N shared some of the truffles that older sis M sent.

I think the highlight for us so far has been Chinatown. It is really larger than life, and Rod and I agree that the only thing that beats it is maybe the Winnipeg Folk Fest camp ground late at night. Because the Chinese are gearing up for Chinese New Year (tomorrow), the streets are packed with kiosks and tens of thousands of people and noise!! Just tonnes of fun to wandering amidst the chaos!

We’re off to Melaka (in Malaysia) this weekend with N and then coming back to Singapore before heading to Bangladesh next Friday (the 15th).

Will sign off to start supper before heading out to catch some of the Chinese New Years festivities, which will go on all night so we’ve been told.

ONO

Test, test

Testing, testing – This is our first post for venturefar – a blog to keep family and friend aprised of our whereabouts as we trapse across Asia for a year. Not sure how often we’ll write but will make a big effort to keep a semi-regular update happening.  Hope anyone reading enjoys. You can also view our pictures at flickr.com/photos/dreadsword.

So… our one year adventure in Asia has begun (although we aren’t in Asia yet – Rod was sick and fainted as we were loading the plane, even before we made it to our seats! So we were promptly escorted back off the plane and met by the doctor on duty at the airport. The doctor has checked Rod over and determined it to be a case of nerves and has cleared us for leave once again. So now we are patiently waiting for a later flight)…. J.K. Rod is fine and we made it out of Winnipeg without incident, save for a moment of panic when they announced last boarding call for our flight as we made our way through security. We are spending the next 3 days in Victoria visiting Rod’s parents and enjoying some much needed relaxation after the mayhem of packing. D & F (Rod’s parents) are doing their best to fatten us up before we are off to the land of strange foods and lots of fish! We are loving the carnivorous and chocolate diet!!Will will write again when we have made it to Singapore.

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